“Fiction was useful as a reminder of the truths under the surface of what we argue about every day.”

So we are again reminded that fiction, even though made up, is about the truth of things, particularly our lives.

He also cited a reason that many of us read fiction when he said

“. . .there’s been the occasion where I just want to get out of my own head. Sometimes you read fiction just because you want to be someplace else.”

The article reported that he sees fiction as a valuable contributor to what the future holds.

“When so much of our politics is trying to manage this clash of cultures brought about by globalization and technology and migration, the role of stories to unify — as opposed to divide, to engage rather than to marginalize — is more important than ever,”

About his time in New York, during which he read a great deal, both fiction and nonfiction, he says

“. . . it reintroduced me to the power of words as a way to figure out who you are and what you think, and what you believe, and what’s important, and to sort through and interpret this swirl of events that is happening around you every minute.”

Did you know that Obama wrote short stories? I didn’t.

“. . . writing was the way I sorted through a lot of crosscurrents in my life — race, class, family. And I genuinely believe that it was part of the way in which I was able to integrate all these pieces of myself into something relatively whole.

“People now remark on this notion of me being very cool, or composed. And what is true is that I generally have a pretty good sense of place and who I am, and what’s important to me. And I trace a lot of that back to that process of writing.”

I was delighted to learn that his reading is eclectic, and that it includes science fiction and thrillers. There’s much more of interest to writers in the article, so check it out here.

The point of all this? Keep at it, you’re contributing to us and to yourself.

Book clubs are terrific in many ways, most especially in that they buy and read books. I've sat in on a book club meeting that discussed one of my novels, and they were all intelligent and insightful--I had a good time, perhaps mostly because they liked the novel.

And that none of them were the women portrayed in a post I came across titled "The 7 People in Every Book Club." It's tongue-in-cheek, but I suspect there's a lot of truth in this.

I also think that some of these same people appear in writers' critique groups. What do you think?

Before answering that question, though, I really could use submissions for flogging. There are none in the queue, which means you'll just have me blathering about something. Okay, enough pleading . . .

Let’s hear it for us! The article reports on the results of scientific studies of readers of fiction and concludes that they are a special breed. For instance, one study concludes that kids who read the Harry Potter series are “better people” because of significant improvement in their perception of stigmatized groups such as immigrants, homosexuals, or refugees.

Another conclusion: fiction readers make great friends as they tend to be more aware of others’ emotions. In a study of “emotional transportation”—how sensitive people are to others feelings—people read a story and were asked how they felt about what happened to the characters. Empathy was only apparent in people who read fiction and were emotionally transported.

Interestingly, people who read literary fiction (versus popular fiction) scored consistently higher on identifying facial emotions solely through the eyes.

Lastly, and I really like this one, because of the psychological processes used to navigate both fiction and real relationships, fiction is not just a simulator of a social experience, it is a social experience.

It’s Banned Books Week, focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, and the American Library Association makes it quite clear what we lose with this brief photo essay on 10 books that have been and are banned in American communities. The first is below.

Part of the reason for no post on Monday is that I'm in the midst of a move to Ashland, Oregon, a lovely place we lived 20 years ago and are happy to return to. We're staying with friends while we look for a house (timing was such that we had to put our household into storage--bummer).

But I should be able to continue posting as usual--NOTE: could use some more chapters to flog, the queue is at two (this week's supply).

Go here to see what Ashland and the valley it's in look like. It's in southern Oregon and is a high desert climate, not the rainy climate people associate with Oregon.

Caution: word geeks like me may not be able to resist reading through the whole list. I didn’t intend to read it all, but I couldn’t stop and was glad I didn’t. Interestingly, when I copied it into Word for this post, Word identified many of the words as spelling errors. Here’s a brief sample:

The part of a wall between two windows is called the interfenestration.

The part of your back that you can't quite reach to scratch is called the acnestis. It's derived from the Greek word for "cheese-grater."

The opposite of déjà-vu is called jamais-vu: it describes the odd feeling that something very familiar is actually completely new.

The bowl formed by cupping your hands together is called a gowpen.

Happy is used three times more often in English than sad.

A cumberground is an utterly useless person who literally serves no other purpose than to take up space.

The paddywhack mentioned in the nursery rhyme "This Old Man" is a Victorian slang word for a severe beating.

Okay, so we’re pretty much all about words, but here are some you may not know that could apply to you. Check out whether or not you’re guilty of EPEOLATRY in this Huffpost article, “10 Words Every Book Lover Should Know.”

There’s a “first line” contest that could get writers a meeting with Avon editors in the HarperCollins offices—just go here.

That’s a blog, and you post your line(s) in the comments.

The rules:

Entries can be a maximum of three sentences but no more than 100 words.

The competition will run from now until midnight BST the night of Sunday 23rd March. A shortlist of 10 will be announced 4th April and the shortlisted authors will be asked to submit a 1000 word synopsis by 22nd April. The final winner announced 5th May

The winning entry will be selected by a panel of readers at HarperCollins.

As well as the opening line, authors must post: their Authonomy screen name and the title of the book (in ‘quotation marks’).

The full or partial manuscript does not have to be on Authonomy to qualify for the competition, and new members are welcome to enter. If you want to enter and are not currently an Authonomy member then click here to open a free account.

All genres welcome.

We encourage authors to post just the opening line of their novel. However, to allow for the varied nature of opening lines, we will accept up to three sentences or 100 words (whichever is smallest). We reserve the right to remove entries that exceed this or are deemed ‘off topic’.

One entry per book. However, authors may submit multiple entries.

The competition is aimed at authors with either complete manuscripts or partial manuscripts with a full synopsis.

I’ve posted the openings from three of my novels. Just for fun, here’s what I used (a poll follows):

The air was as still as it was hot—only the whir of a grasshopper’s flight troubled the quiet. Jesse felt like an overcooked chicken, his meat darn near ready to fall off his bones. Mouth so dry he didn’t have enough spit left to swallow, Jesse croaked, “That guy tryin’ to kill us?” The Summer Boy

The winter wind, called the Hawk by the people of this city, whips my long coat and thrusts icy talons under my dress, greedy for my warmth. Last I was here it was a lively summer breeze; now it’s a harbinger of death. Finding Magic

Just after dark, death grabbed me by the tail. The moon was full, and the earthy scent of fall flavored a cool September breeze. My mind on a svelte little Siamese who was coming into heat, I trotted over a mound of fresh dirt, not an uncommon thing in a graveyard―and a hand shot up and grabbed my rear extremity. The Vampire Kitty-cat Chronicles

Were any of these inviting enough for reading more? Please do the poll (you can choose more than one entry). Thanks.

The start of the new year is often a time folks resolve to do things, sometimes differently, sometimes new, in the coming year. At the least, it's a time to reflect on where you are now and where you want to go.

Me? Well, I haven't done any real writing for a few years due to being busy with the editing and book design business. But I could have been, and that's nagging at me. I suspect the urge will grow stronger.

It may be temporarily satisfied by a need to "renew" my writing book, Flogging the Quill, Crafting a Novel that Sells. I published the book in the traditional fashion, printing up a bunch of copies and warehouseing and distributing them. But I'm down to my last case of books--they'll be used to sell at writers conferences (coming up in February is doing two workshops at the San Miguel Writer's Conference in Mexico--I'm excited) and to supply the Amazon.com sales chain.

But I think I'm going to do some radical changes for the book. For one thing, the physical size. It's currently workbook-sized, 8 1/2" by 11". A number of people like the open feeling of the book, though a recent Amazon reviewer knocked it down a star because of the size--they would have given it 5 stars but it looked out of place on their shelf of writing books. Can't please everyone.

But, while sales have been good for a self-published book, I wonder if the title is strong enough. The title comes from the blog, of course, and was intended to capitalize on whatever branding my platform has created. On the other hand, it doesn't telegraph a benefit and, for those who don't get it, much about writing.

Big changes ahead: So I'm going to come out with a new version that's retitled and rewritten to freshen it up by adding some chapters, adding exercises, and freshening the content throughout.

New formats: This time, instead of investing dollars I don't have to print up a bunch of books I'll go print on demand in a new, more usual 6" by 9" trade paperback edition, and I'll do ebook versions for Kindle and epub. That may make it more accessible to readers and help with sales.

New title, new cover: to the right is a draft of a new cover with a new title. Nothing is set yet, but I'd appreciate your thoughts on what's here.

Although that will satisfy the creative itch for a while, I know I'll have to give it a good scratch with a new novel, though I have no idea where to go. I have notes for a sequel to The Vampire Kitty-cat Chronicles, but am not sure I want to invest the time and energy. I'm taking a serious look at publishing another novel with a new title and rewrite, but that's not really new. I've grown interested in YA dystopian fiction and am drawn to that--over the holiday I read the Divergent series and though it was both remarkable and well written.

On the other hand, I'm drawn (pun intended) to do something harder and fresher for me, a graphic novel based on this character from a previous comic strip attempt.

My Wordzzle game. It doesn't look like it's going to achieve Kickstarter funding (only 5 days to go), but I've gotten enough feedback to believe that it could be truly useful to teachers and have a niche educational market that could expand to home and family fun. I hope to find another way to finance a first printing and marketing. It really is a fun game to play.

What about you? Plans? Resolutions?

Enough about me, how about letting me know what you'll be doing, writing-wise, in 2014 in the comments section.